June 29-Genesis 22
I have trouble with the idea of obedience. I was delighted when one did not hear love honor, obey in the marriage vows. Blind obedience strikes me as an invitation to sin or dreadful mistake. Should Abraham have said no to this order in the first place? His name is called toward death at first, but it concludes with his name calling toward life.
The temple is on this site.Why would God wish to test the strength of Abraham’s love of god or Isaac in this way?The story of the binding of Isaac, recall his name means laughter, is called the aqedah by our Jewish brethren who struggle with this story.
I always thought that this story can be read as a test of the character of God by Abraham. It seems to mean that he is calling what he suspects is god’s bluff. The Lord will provide when he son asks about the sacrifice, and indeed a ram appears caught in a thicket just in time. Hebrew narrative is capable of cinematic speed and images, but here it slows down to mark each step by tortured, torturous step.Hagar weeps and cannot bear to be near her dying son. Abraham will be as close as possible as the instrument of his son’s sacrificial death
Some Jews look at the story of the Jewish jesus and shake their heads. At least, Isaac was spared in the end, but here, god does see the son, the only son, the only beloved son on the cross.For Christians, was God not tested to the limit in the crucifixion? In the creed, we speak of god’s only begotten son.Did god not answer it in the resurrection? Here God in effect self-sacrifices. Jesus is as silent in his trial as Isaac is here; are both to be seen as sacrificial lambs? We coninue to sacrifice our children and countless children of each other to the gods of war We try to bind the future by our action and attitudes, or maybe more difficult by the comfortable choice of inaction as opposed ot the risks of action now.To a lesser degree, we are willing to sacrific eour children to our own missed ambitions.
Sin binds us all as tightly as Isaac.At Easter not only did Jesus find himself unbound from death, but we start to grasp that the tight bidnding of sin and deahtitslef was unravelled. Between human fallibility and limitations, we make decisions amid a sea of doubts and uncertainty. Economists may dream of full, free, and perfect information, but it does not exist in the real human world, especially our capacity to manage it, even if it were available.Spiritual discernment is all about seeking the will of god in a decision.It is difficult for me to see this command as being Will of God. I start with the premise that the will of God is toward life and not death.Does it seem consonant with the god in and of Jesus Christ in its overall pattern? where does Scripture lead us on the decision at hand. that is not as easy as it sounds, as scripture speaks in a variety of voices, so we are continuing a discussion with god that has now spanned millenia. we all do well to seek spiritual discernment for huge decisions such as the binding of Isaac or the seemingly smaller decision to give a cup of cold water as Jesus said.If one has a sense that the decision feels right into the future, that no nagging doubts remain, then that can be a good sign. if one woudl be willing to go public with the decision instead of hiding it, then that cna be a good sign.
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